Govt recommends continuation of TUFS

The Union government has recommended continuation

of the Technological Upgradation Funds Scheme (TUFS) with an allocation of Rs 15,886 crores for the 12th Five-Year Plan period. “The government has recommended continuation of TUFS with an allocation of Rs 15,886 crore for the entire 12th Five-Year Plan against the allocation of Rs 15,404 crores during the 11th Five-Year Plan,” Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The scheme, which was launched in 1999, has been one of the popular among the textiles units. Segments like spinning, cotton ginning and pressing, garments and weaving are the segments that have been benefitted from the scheme. The government had suspended the TUFS in June 2010 and restored the revised scheme in April 2011.

The industry has been demanding continuation of the scheme as the freeze would adversely impact their investment and modernisation plans. The domestic textiles industry, which employs about 35 million, requires constant modernisation of its plant and machinery to compete with China in global markets.